Psalm 16, the third day resurrection, and the empty tomb

[iskander]

Jesus was a great man .He offered a new understanding of God which was then and remains now more generous to men and women than any other offer on sale.

I sympathize. I like how Judaism has basic good theology and not idolatry.
But with Christianity you also get great moral teachings. I know that a lot of people don't care about that stuff, but it's hard to lead a decent life without morals.

No dictionaries
Strong is best used for concordance .Dictionaries only tell you how words are used in a particular community at a particular time with examples of how native speakers use those words in phrases.

When first learning a foreign language one begins with a bilingual dictionary which gives sufficient information at this stage. Later , if one has made good progress, the learner should as soon as it is practical switch to the dictionary used by the people whose language one wants to learn.

When reading foreign literature one has to trust translators for it impossible to acquire proficiency in many languages .
Dead languages are a nightmare to understand even if they are written in one's own language. For example the Old English ( Anglo Saxon) poem Beowulf is incomprehensible to modern English native speakers.
Words are continually changing the spelling and meaning . If one looks up the word ' gay' in an English dictionary published in the 50s the entry will only say , it means cheerful . Religious texts written in a dead primitive language by people who no longer exit and whose purpose is to instruct on the one prevailing view of the winners. Those rotting texts are the evidence for an idiosyncratic understanding of esoteric themes.Take the word ' messiah' the modern best dictionary would probably fail to tell what it meant at the time of interest . In modern times messiah is understood differently by different religions and secular cultures .



A Hebrew dictionary to read the bible ? ???
Read authors you trust as experts inn the subject of your choice and accept that alien cultures may understand words differently.

PS : Hashem is one idol for me, look it up on a good dictionary

[Ulan]

If you use biblehub and go for example to Gen 1:1 then click on the strongs number for elohim, scroll down and you find the BDB entry for elohim. For every strongs number for the Hebrew bible there is a BDB entry.

Good to know, thanks!

[Ulan]

With the Iliad and the Odyssey, the weakness is that they are Greek religion, while Hebrew religion was different. But still, they are writings from the same era (ie 1100-800 BC before the First Temple's destruction), so it shows that those ideas existed at the time.
The ancient Jews would naturally shrink from ideas like idolatry, but they would still be inclined to "blessings" from Adonai.

I don't think Jews of that time frame had any problems with idolatry. While you can find statements against idolatry in Judges and Samuel, the actual stories speak a different language. Think of Micah's idols in Judges 17/18, which were put up in a sanctuary at Dan, plus the teraphim, which are also present as life-sized figures in the house of Michal (1Sam 19:13 13 Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes.).

There doesn't seem to be any negative connotation present in each of these cases. Teraphim were allegedly outlawed by Josiah, but they are still mentioned later.

[iskander]

With the Iliad and the Odyssey, the weakness is that they are Greek religion, while Hebrew religion was different. But still, they are writings from the same era (ie 1100-800 BC before the First Temple's destruction), so it shows that those ideas existed at the time.
The ancient Jews would naturally shrink from ideas like idolatry, but they would still be inclined to "blessings" from Adonai.

I don't think Jews of that time frame had any problems with idolatry. While you can find statements against idolatry in Judges and Samuel, the actual stories speak a different language. Think of Micah's idols in Judges 17/18, which were put up in a sanctuary at Dan, plus the teraphim, which are also present as life-sized figures in the house of Michal (1Sam 19:13 13 Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes.).

There doesn't seem to be any negative connotation present in each of these cases. Teraphim were allegedly outlawed by Josiah, but they are still mentioned later.

deleted. posted in the wrong place. I meant to add a PS in my post to ravkosky : hashem is an idol for me